Slot guard for coin-controlled locks



W. C. REES. SLOT GUARD FbR com CONTROLLED LOCKS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 14. I920.

Patented 0015.31

- Zflm rma @Eaw vvv Patented Get. 31, $22.

Ul lllTElF WARREN C. REES, 0F SOMEBJVILLE, MAS$AGHUSETTS. ASSIGNQR TO ASEPTIC SERVICE COMPANY, OF BOSTON, EKASSACHUSETTS, A CORPUEATIGN 0F MAINE,

SLOT GUARD FOE OQIN-CONIROLLED LOCKS.

Application filed July 1e,

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that T. WARREN C. Runs, a. citizen of the United States, residing at Semerville. in the county of Middlesex and State of h lassachusetts. have invented new and useful Improvements in Slot Guards for Coin-Controlled Locks, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to door locks which are adapted to be opened through the aid of an inserted coin, and is particularly concerned with the provision of means for obstructing; the entrance opening or slot tor the coin when the closet or other apartment to which the door gives access occupied. To this end a guard is associated with a bolt which is provided to be pro jected by the occupant of the apartment when the door is closed, and the guard is so moved by or with such bolt as to obstruct the coin entrance slot when the bolt is projected, and to leave such slot unobstructed when the bolt is retracted. The guard then prevents loss ota coin by a person seeking to enter an apartment already occupied and locked. @ne important use of the invention is in connection with coin-controlled mecha nismused in connection with water closets to compel payment in advance by prospective users.

in the drawings herewith turnished l have shown the preferred embodiment of my invention.

Figure 1 illustrating; such embodiment shows a "fragment of a door seen edgewise with a look applied to one side, a box containingthe coin controlled means and a de pository for coins, on the other side of the door, and the coin guard in its operative association with the box and with a second bolt provided to be projected by the occupant of the room. I

Figure 2 is a side elevation as seen from the right of Figure 1.

Fi 'ure 3 is an elevation of the lock on an enlarged scale, as viewed from the left of in ure l, with its cover plate and the handle of the latch bolt removed.

Figure 4 is a cross section taken on line i-t of Figure 3 and viewed as from beneath said line.

Figure 5 is a perspective view showing the locking bolt and associated coin slot guard separated from one another.

Figure 6 is a plan view of the combination shown in Figure l, the door being represented in section.

Like reference characters represent the same parts wherever they occur in all the figures.

Referring first to Figures 1, 2, and 6, 10 represents a door, 11 represents a lock hava latch bolt 12 which is mounted upon one side of the door, but may be otherwise mounted in any of the modes in which locks are applied to doors, and 1.8 and 14 represent handles on the inner' side and outer sides, respectively, 01 the door (with reference to the apartment to which access is excluded when the door is closed and locked). These handles typify any-means, including knobs, which may be turned for retracting; the spring-projected latch bolt 12. The inner handle is adapted to retract the latch directly when turned, and may be associated for that purpose with any means known in the art, one such means being illustratively shown in Figure 3 and consisting of a dog l5 mounted on the shaft to which the handle is secured, and having two arms 16 and 17 bearing respectively against shoulders 18 and 19 on the forked inner end of the latch bolt. 20 represents the spring which projects the bolt.

The outer handle 14- is on a shank which passes into the box 21. and is adapted to turn the shank carrying the dog 15 throu h coincontrolled mechanism in the box. l. such mechanism does not term any part of my present invention T have not attempted to show it.

What this invention is concerned with is a means associated with a second bolt 22 for obstructing the slot 23 (Figure 6) in the top of the box into which the coin is inserted to make the outer handle operative for retractingthe latch bolt. The second bolt 22 is provided to enable the occupant of the room or closet to lock the door so that no one else can enter during his occupancy; and it carries a pin or knob 24: extending through aslot in the cover plate 25 of the lock 11, by which it may be projected. The slot guard which is moved across the coin slot whenever the bolt 22 is projected is, in the illustrated device, a rod 26, passing through the door into the box 21 close to the top wall of the latter and adapted, when moved outward, to cross the slot, as shown in Fi ure 6, and when moved inward, to be wlthdrawn entirely clear oi the slot. llts inner end projects into the lock casing 11 and is pivoted to a dog 27, which has here the form of a lever mounted by a pivot pin 28 on a bracket 29 fixed to the wall of the lock casing next to the door. This dog carries a pin, or equivalent finger 30, extending into the space between the shank of the bolt 22 and the back wall of the casing, and said bolt shank has ,a cam or wiper projection 31 adapted to slide against said finger. A spring 32 coiled about the pivot 28 and held at one end by an anchor age pin 33 on the dog, bears at its other end against said back wall (which is the wall of the lock casing next to the door) and exerts force pressing the finger 30 against the bolt shank and tending constantly to withdraw' the guard from the slot. The width and position of the bolt shank, the position on the shank, and the extent, of the cam projection 31, the position of the finger 30, and the length of the dog 26, are all so designed and determined that, when the bolt is projected, the cam projection bears against the finger and holds the dog and guard displaced in a position where the guard obstructs the coin slot; but when the bolt is retracted, the cam projection is displaced from the finger. and the guard is withdrawn from the slot. It follows from this that when a person has entered the apartment and locked the door by projecting bolt 22, another person outside ofthe apartment desiring to enter it, and not knowing that it is occupied, is unable to insert a coin in the slot.

If there were no guard and no secondary locking bolt, the person on the outside of the apartment could drop a coin in the box, turn back the latch bolt, and enter the occupied apartment. The second bolt and the guard prevent the apartment from being thus entered and likewise prevent the person seeking, to enter from loss of his coin.

The bolt shank is shown with a second cam 31 on the opposite side, the reverse duplicate of the cam 31, and the dog with a finger 3O projecting oppositely from the finger 30. These duplicate cams and fingers are furnished in. order that the bolt and dog may be assembled in different relations to,

, one another thanthat here shown, in which either the bolt or the dog is reversed -in position or arrangement with respect to the other. The bolt is provided with a spring awl 34: adapted to enter notches 35 and 36 in the case 11 to hold it either retracted or projected.

Several advantages follow from. the fact that the slot guard is controlled by an independent manually operated bolt and not by any part of the coin-controlled mechanism. The manually operated bolt is ofa type with which all persons are familiar and is of the nature of those with which closet doors are commonly equipped, that is, doors of such closets as coin-controlled locks are applied to. Persons using such closets almost invariably project the manually operated bolt, and by that act obstruct the coin slot on -the outside of the door. This obstruction is en: tirely independent of the manipulation of the latch handle or knob or of any part of the coin-controlled mechanism, wherefore the occupant of the closet can try the inner handle to make sure that he can open the door at will and is not accidentally locked in, without in any way affecting the guard.

What I claim and desire to secure by Let- I ters Patent is:

1. In combination with adoor, a latch mounted on the door, coin controlled means for operating said latch, a casing for said means having a coin slot, a guard for said slot consisting of a pin extending toward the slot and adapted to be passed across and.

withdrawn from it, said guard being independent of the aforesaid latch, a bolt indeso arranged that when the bolt is projected to lock the door said cam acts to place the guard across the slot, and when the bolt is retracted the spring withdraws the guard.

2. A coin-controlled lock including in combination'with a door, a coin receptacle having an admission s1ot,a bolt adapted to be projected and retracted for locking and unlocking. the door, a guard movable transversely to the bolt and arranged to be thrust across the slot, obstructing it, and to be withdrawnleaving the slot clear, apivoted dog to which the guard is connected, an up standing finger on said dog, and a cam element on the side of the bolt'arranged to travel across said finger when the bolt is moved and shaped to cause displacement of the finger thereby. In testimony whereof I have afiixed my signature. I

.WARREN REES. 

